Metabolomic analysis provides a means to simultaneously evaluate changes in all the major biochemical pathways in plant tissues. This can reveal metabolic effects related to genetics (natural variation, mutations), plant development, plant nutrition, biotic and abiotic stresses, agricultural chemicals (e.g. mode of action), and genetic engineering, among others. In recent decades, the great expansion of information brought about by genome sequencing and expression analysis provides important, but incomplete, representations of plant growth and development.

In this webinar, we discuss how metabolomics fills a critical void in developing a comprehensive systems approach to basic plant biology. Metabolic engineering in plants can often result in unexpected perturbations of metabolic processes, making metabolomic analysis a useful technology for design optimization and event selection.